Let’s Retire the iPhone Smartphone
Posted on December 13, 2011
The iPhone resembles a smartphone less than a BMW does a horseless carriage.
As noted five years ago in this Inside Digital Media video podcast, the device is more accurately labeled a “teleputer”. (The podcast is so old it was done in Windows Media Video). George Gilder originated the concept about twenty years ago when he envisioned a hand-held unit providing convenient wireless access to a global computer network. It was kind-of the evolutionary destination implied by a popular computer industry slogan at the time, to wit, “the network is the computer.”
Download five minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, and iPod here.
Each day Gilder’s concept becomes increasingly obvious to a growing proportion of iPhone users. Today everyone realizes telephone conversations are only one of many useful iPhone functions. More significantly, iPhone users are progressively learning that computer applications are becoming the unit’s raison d’etre. In short, the phone’s digital capabilities such as photography, geo-location, audio & video playback, and especially Internet access, are the defining characteristics. Applications like Skype and FaceTime portend an era when cellular telephony per se, becomes irrelevant to iPhone owners. Read more…
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Fulfilling a Steve Jobs Vision
Posted on November 28, 2011
Today’s podcast is a twenty-five minute interview with Ulik Broida who is the Vice President of Marketing at Israel-based Wavion, which is a subsidiary of wireless equipment maker, Alvarion. Wavion specializes in Wi-Fi access points designed for outdoor use.
Earlier this month the senior founder at Trilogy Partnership disclosed that Steve Jobs was originally seriously considering whether Apple could build a nationwide Wi-Fi network for the iPhone. Since Wi-Fi spectrum is unlicensed Apple could build its own network thereby avoiding the possibility that the iPhone user experience would be dependent upon cellular carriers. Presumably, with the iPad on the drawing board, Jobs could see that much of Apple’s future growth would depend upon the availability of reliable wireless service at reasonable fees.
Download 25 minute audio interview to iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
According to Trilogy’s John Stanton, who spent a lot of time with Jobs during iPhone gestation, “(Jobs) wanted to replace carriers. He and I spent a lot of time examining whether a new carrier could be created synthetically with a national Wi-Fi network using unlicensed spectrum.” Jobs eventually partnered with AT&T, partly because the carrier agreed to subsidize the iPhone subscriber costs. Nonetheless, Stanton concluded, “If I were a carrier, I’d be concerned about the dramatic power shift that occurred.” Read more…
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Why Steve Jobs Wanted Apple’s Own National Wi-Fi Network
Posted on November 16, 2011
On Monday the Chairman of a prominent venture capital firm named Trilogy Partners disclosed that Steve Jobs initially wanted Apple to deploy its own national Wi-Fi network to service the iPhone.
The reasons are precisely those discussed in our blog post six months ago entitled, “Should Apple Become a Wireless ISP?”
Download three-minute audio to iPod, iPhone, or iPad here.
According to Trilogy’s John Stanton who spent a lot of time with Jobs during iPhone gestation, “(Jobs) wanted to replace carriers. He and I spent a lot of time examining whether a new carrier could be created synthetically with a national Wi-Fi network using unlicensed spectrum.”
Jobs eventually partnered with AT&T, partly because the carrier agreed to subsidize the cost of an iPhone for subscribers. Nonetheless, Stanton concluded, “If I were a carrier, I’d be concerned about the dramatic shift in power that occurred.” Read more…
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Twenty Months Ahead of GigaOm
Posted on September 1, 2011
Last week market researcher GigaOm critiqued the CATV industry with an article entitled “Forget TV, broadband is the future of cable.” Apparently their analyst was prompted by what he termed a “surprise” comment from Time-Warner Cable’s CEO that “broadband was becoming the company’s anchor service.” The analyst then proceeded to explain that profit margins were higher in broadband and it’s really the prime service consumers want anyway.
Download two minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod here.
Such conclusions fail to be news for Inside Digital Media subscribers since we provided much the same analysis in our December 5, 2009 podcast/post entitled “Cable Operators Will Abandon TV.” That’s nearly two years before GigaOm.
If you want market knowledge ahead of your competitors subscribe to our podcasts here our regular newsletter here – all at no charge. Read more…
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Creating Effective QR Code and Watermarking Campaigns
Posted on August 16, 2011
The key is to start at the end and work backward.
Consider the example of a print advertising campaign enhanced with QR Codes, Digital Watermarks, or other embedded signaling. Whatever the signaling methodology, the technology itself is not the strategy. Instead it is merely a tactical weapon to trigger a desired consumer response.
Download seven minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod.
There are basically four steps. First, is to identify a concrete action the advertiser wants consumers to take. Second, is to design an ad that will capture attention. Third, is to determine what embedded signal payoff might motivate consumers to initiate the intended action. Fourth, is to minimize the “friction” encountered to complete such action.
Concrete Consumer Action
Normally the ultimate objective is to get consumers to buy the advertiser’s product or service. But shoppers are constantly hounded to “buy.” Another mere voice in the crowd is more likely to be resented than appreciated. Instead, methods of engagement or intermediate calls-to-action often get better results. Read more…
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Virtual Immortality
Posted on July 29, 2011
One-hundred-and-fifty years ago this month, the first major battle of the American Civil War was fought about 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. The armies clashed along a slow-moving country stream known as Bull Run. A bridge across the brook is pictured at the left in a photo taken shortly after the fight.
Download four minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod here.
A recent New York Times article explains the battle, and the ensuing war, was the first to be extensively documented with photography which was an emerging technology at the time. A dozen years earlier a few photos had been taken of the Mexican War. A few years after that, a British photographer took over three hundred of the Crimean War. Among them was a bogus picture of the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” made famous in the 19th century by Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade” and in the 20th by Errol Flynn. Read more…
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New IPO in Wireless ISP Industry
Posted on June 29, 2011
A maker of radio transceivers and related hardware for the Wireless ISP industry recently filed papers with the Securities & Exchange Commission seeking authorization to sell stock to the public. Silicon Valley based Ubiquiti Networks plans to offer $200 million worth of stock. Some of the shares will be sold by existing shareholders which includes a venture capital firm as well as members of management. The venture firm has held the shares less than 18 months. As yet, there is no indication of the price at which public shares will be sold.
To download three minute audio narration now click here.
We have no opinion on the merits – or demerits – of the Ubiquiti Networks stock offering.
As the table below illustrates, revenues have grown rapidly. The company’s fiscal year ends tomorrow. From Fiscal 2008 to Fiscal 2010 sales grew from $22 million to $137 million. For the first three-quarters of Fiscal 2011 sales were up 34% from $97 million to $130 million.
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Wireless ISPs Echo Radio Common Carriers
Posted on June 21, 2011
Prior to the advent of cellular telephony about thirty years ago, a limited form of mobile telephone service was provided by two categories of FCC-authorized common carriers. First, and most familiar, were the telephone companies dominated by Bell. But there was a second class – almost forgotten today – termed Radio Common Carrier (RCC).
To download seven minute audio narration to iPhone, iPad, or iPod, click here.
RCCs were small operators who were not permitted to offer landline service. Typically the businesses evolved as a branch of even older family-owned companies involved in telephone answering or two-way radio dispatch services. At the dawn of cellular telephony radio paging was their main revenue source because the available frequencies could accommodate thousands of paging units, but each channel could handle only a single simultaneous telephone conversation. In the pre-cellular era, mobile telephone service was much like the party-lines common in rural areas during the 1930s and 40s. Read more…
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